1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of medical reporting systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a digital medical reporting system designed to allow ophthalmologists to automatically generate various patient reports from ophthalmic drawings based on manual evaluation of the interior of the eye (Opthalmoscopy) and/or other images generated from image capture stations. The present invention system enables ophthalmologists to create a medical drawing and to automatically provide annotations on those drawings to efficiently diagnose patients based on examinations. The present invention system further automatically generates several types of medical examination reports (e.g., billing reports for insurance companies, a proofsheet of an examination to be included in a patient chart, a referral letter to other physicians, etc.).
2. Discussion of Related Art
Currently, there are several digital capture stations that can also be used for ophthalmic diagnosis and that enhance the ability of physicians to create drawings. These capture stations include, but are not limited to, the following: Fundus Cameras for angiography, color photos, and red free photos; Ultrasound; Optical Coherence Tomography; Slit-lamp photography; Corneal Topography; and Scanning Laser Opthalmoscope. These capture stations complement one another and offer the ophthalmologist a range of techniques for imaging particular diseases.
Further, there are currently several drawing systems allowing physicians to create digital drawings. These drawing programs generate stand-alone digital images, which can then be associated with patient reports in an electronic medical record system (EMR). The most common ways to generate reports include:
(1) Writing out the report by hand;
(2) Filling out a pre-printed template by hand;
(3) Dictating a complete custom report;
(4) Dictating short notes to customize a digital template; and
(5) Selecting choices and typing in short notes to customize a digital template.
Physicians spend a considerable amount of time using the above methods to generate standard reports, such as an Opthalmoscopy (drawing) report, a referral letter, and a billing report. The current physician workflow is illustrated in FIG. 1. Specifically, the physician performs a manual examination of the eye at step 10. If the patient is a repeat patient or has already had images taken, then the physician logs into the examination database or opens the paper examination chart at step 11, and retrieves and reviews existing examinations at step 12. The physician logs into the drawing program or obtains a paper drawing template at step 13. The physician subsequently creates and saves the drawing at step 14. Finally, the physician logs into the reporting system or obtains a paper report template at step 15 and creates the report at step 16 using one of the mechanisms described above. The examination is completed at step 17.